"Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements."
Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

War on Terrorism

Friday, January 11, 2013

Throwing in the Towel on Afghanistan, Almost

Commentary
by Lt. Colonel John Lewis Cook, USA (ret.)

It
was a masterful performance at the White House this afternoon.There was President Barack Obama alongside
President Hamid Karzai, who was in town with his tin cup and signature cape and
hat, asking for more assistance to save his country.Karzai has become a master at this act over
the years and today’s performance was pure, classic Karzai.Obama, on the other hand, played a new card.Since he couldn’t, with a straight face, say
we had achieved anything there that could be remotely considered positive, he
called up a new play.Looking as serious
as he possibly could, Obama came very close to telling the truth about
Afghanistan.He actually said that the U.S.
fell “short of the ideal in Afghanistan.”

While
this is hardly a news flash to anyone with the most basic understanding of
what’s happening in this third-world hell hole, it does show a remarkable
insight into how our president, the man America has now elected president
twice, actually thinks about America.While he had a wonderful opportunity to tell the world the truth about
the failure in Afghanistan, he only told part of the story.While it is true that America has fallen
short there, he failed to tell us why.Instead, he fell back on the old liberal theme of always blaming America
first whenever anything goes wrong in the world.I doubt if any of the reporters there will
pick up on this remarkable insight and that is a tragedy in itself.

He
should have taken this opportunity to tell the whole truth, right there is front
of Hamid Karzai, who has presided over an interlocking criminal enterprise
there for over eleven years, stealing billions in American aid and sending it
to bands in Dubai.He could have held
Karzai responsible for the total failure of the Afghan security forces in
battling the Taliban.He could have
discussed the alarming increase in so called “insider attacks,” where members
of the Afghan army and Afghan National Police, forces controlled by Karzai,continue to murder coalition forces.He could have held the Afghan government
responsible for Afghanistan producing 97% of the world’s opium supply, an
illegal activity that funds and supports the Taliban and is conducted with the
full support of the Afghan government. However, none of these embarrassing issues
were discussed today because that would be considered very undiplomatic by our
president.Neither was the sorry plight
of women in Afghanistan discussed and the fact that most marriages there are
forced, which accounts for Afghanistan having the world’s highest suicide rate
for women between the ages of 15 and 25.Rather, Obama decided to say that the U.S. simply fell short in
achieving the ideal for Afghanistan.

Nor
was there any discussion on what Obama said about Afghanistan when he was
running for president back in 2008.Back
then, Obama said Afghanistan was “the good war,” the war we had to win because
Afghanistan was far different that Iraq, which was George Bush’s war, a war we
should have never fought.There really
was no need for this, since Obama has been safely reelected for a second term
after successfully exploiting Afghanistan for his first presidential
victory.He realizes that Americans have
short memories and reminding them of this would only be an inconvenient
truth.Far better to simply let it
lie.

In
the end, he did say something to the effect that much good has been
accomplished with the assistance of our Afghan allies and that he is confident
the Afghans can take over the security for the country at the end of 2014.However, he said nothing about that little
three letter active verb, “win,” because even Obama realizes that’s never going
to happen now.Nor did he say anything
about the Americans that are still dying there for no reason other than
defending Karzai’s criminal enterprise.

There
was a time in America when we expected our presidents to actually be
presidential.Harry Truman had a sign on
his desk that said “The Buck Stops Here.”Truman would never say “the U.S. fell short,” because he was the U.S. to
the outside world.Unfortunately, we do
not live in that world anymore.The
world we live in today lets our president escape any responsibility for his
failure to be presidential.If, indeed,
the U.S. fell short, who is Obama really blaming?The troops on the ground, who have to fight
under very harsh and restrictive rules of engagement that do not let them
engage the enemy?The commanders who
refuse to carry out his orders?If that’s
the case, why aren’t the rules of engagement changed or the commanders fired?After all, he’s the Commander in Chief and
he alone has the authority to do that.

Of
course, none of the reporters at the White House today wanted to ask these
questions because that would appear to be bad form.None of them wanted to remind Obama that he
had once said Afghanistan was “the good war,” a war we had to win.This story, no doubt, will be replaced with
other stories in the daily news cycle and over the weekend, it will fade from
the public conscience.After all, the
NFL playoffs are coming up and everyone has a favorite team.

America
has a lot to think about and the daily cycle of living tends to consume
us.However, in a rare moment of
reflection, we should pause to think about this story.While it doesn’t offer us much new information
on our president, it does speak volumes about us.From time to time, we do need to think about
those fine young men and women on the ground in Afghanistan, risking everything
in our name, and realizing that our president, their Commander in Chief, just
threw them under the bus for a photo op with Hamid Karzai.Is it possible that Obama is actually right
after all in blaming the U.S. for falling short in Afghanistan because we did,
indeed, make his president?

About
the Author

Lieutenant
Colonel John Lewis Cook, United States Army (Retired), “served as the Senior
Advisor to the Ministry of Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan, with responsibility
for developing the force structure for the entire Afghan National Police.As of 2012, this force totals 157,000.From March 2008 until August 2012, his access
and intimate associations with all levels of the Afghan government and
coalition forces have provided him with an unprecedented insight into the
policies which will determine the outcome of the war.It is this insight, coupled with his contacts
and associations throughout Afghanistan that form the basis of Afghanistan: The
Perfect Failure.